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Instead, he has become involved in education projects, in mediation missions to try to solve problems elsewhere in Africa, and – most of all – in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He allowed his prison number to be used to help promote AIDS awareness campaigns, and presided over the high-profile ‘46664’ concerts that involved such stars as Baaba Maal and Johnny Clegg. He has visited AIDS clinics, and after his last surviving son Makgatho died of AIDS in January 2005, he had the courage to speak out and announce that this was indeed the cause of his death.
Mandela urged South Africans to use condoms and to wait until their late teens to have sex, as new figures showed that more than six million South Africans were now infected with the AIDS virus. As ever, he spoke his mind, and did so knowing that his successor, President Thabo Mbeki, had angered health campaigners by questioning the causes and severity of the epidemic.
Nelson Mandela is arguably the greatest and most loved statesman of the past century. He is a true icon, a man who never compromised, who survived 27 years in prison with no bitterness towards his former enemies, and who lived to see his dream of a multi-racial South Africa fulfilled.
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